MIAMI — Kaitlyn Hunt’s parents insist that their daughter, a Central Florida high school senior, is being prosecuted for sex crimes only because her lover was another girl. The state attorney says that gender makes no difference; the age of the two girls is at the crux of the case.

Ms. Hunt, 18, is an adult. The girl with whom she allegedly had sexual encounters is 14.

Ms. Hunt, described by her parents as a happy, hardworking girl who played on the basketball team, sang in the school choir, helped mentor other cheerleaders and taught gymnastics to younger children, became an international cause célèbre over the weekend after details of her arrest and pending prosecution exploded across the Internet.

Between Friday night and Tuesday morning, more than 100,000 supporters from around the world signed an online petition siding with Ms. Hunt’s parents. About 30,000 supporters, some from as far away as Australia, South Korea and the Netherlands, had joined the Facebook group Free Kate.

The police arrested Ms. Hunt on Feb. 16 at her mother’s home in Sebastian, near Vero Beach, charging her with two counts of lewd or lascivious battery, a second-degree felony. According to the arrest affidavit, the two girls, who knew each other from the basketball team, began a relationship in November. Just before Christmas, they had a sexual encounter in a bathroom at Sebastian River High School. They had at least one more encounter there, according to the affidavit, and one in Ms. Hunt’s bedroom in January after the 14-year-old, a freshman, ran away from home.

The younger girl’s parents went to the police after learning from a coach, school employees and students that their daughter was having a relationship, according to a report from the Indian River County Sheriff’s office. The parents’ information led to the investigation.

A sheriff’s deputy interviewed Ms. Hunt. In a summary of her statement, he wrote that she had confirmed having a sexual encounter with the girl in the school bathroom and in her bedroom. The younger girl’s name is blotted out throughout the publicly released form, but the final line of the report tackles the difference in age. When he asked Ms. Hunt if she knew it was wrong to have sex with the 14-year-old, “Kaitlyn stated that she did not think about it because” the girl “acted older.”

Steven Hunt Jr., Ms. Hunt’s father, wrote in an introduction to the online petition that he believed “Kaitlyn’s girlfriend’s parents are pressing charges because they are against the same-sex relationship, even though their daughter has stated that this is a consensual relationship.” A little later, he added, “Now she’s been expelled from school and is facing serious felonies — all because she is in love.”

The father of the 14-year-old said he had no comment at this time.

A spokesman for the sheriff’s department, Sgt. Thom Raulen, said that there was no indication that Ms. Hunt had forced the younger girl into a sexual relationship. However, in Florida, a minor is not considered capable of giving consent, he added.

But to Ms. Hunt’s Facebook supporters, it seemed like a tale of high school love, archaic laws and antigay prejudice.

“People are frustrated with the current laws and stipulations against anyone, whether it’s for age or same-sex, and maybe the fact that people just think that what is happening is unfair, because that’s a lot of the comments that we’re seeing on the page, is that it’s just not right,” Nichole Mottau-Sweet, who began the Facebook page, said. “It’s the old quote ‘The punishment doesn’t fit the crime.’ Although no one considers what went on any kind of crime that deserves punishment.”

State Attorney Bruce Colton said Florida statutes were quite specific. “The law makes no distinction between whether it’s a boy and a girl, an older boy and a younger girl, younger boy and an older girl or two boys or two girls,” he said. “If one person is over the age of 18 and the other is between the age of 12 and 16, that’s the crime, regardless of the sex of either or both of them.”

Prosecutors have offered Ms. Hunt a plea-bargain agreement that would allow her to plead no contest to a lesser charge of child abuse, and they have promised not to seek prison time. She could then be sentenced to community control, which could require an ankle monitor, or probation. The judge could withhold adjudication. That would mean she would not have to register as a sex offender, and her record could be expunged later.

Still, Ms. Hunt’s parents are emphatically opposed to her accepting this plea deal. They fear that it is too big a gamble to hope that a judge will agree. If not, her parents worry, sex offender status would haunt their daughter for the rest of her life.

“It’s life-changing. It’s like a death sentence to all her future goals,” her mother, Kelley Hunt Smith, said. “I have four other daughters. She could not be involved in their activities. There’s just so many things — you can’t go and pursue pediatric nursing. There’s just a lot of things she will not be able to do.”

The state attorney has given Ms. Hunt until Friday to accept the plea offer. Otherwise, she faces trial.

Prosecutors have offered Ms. Hunt a plea-bargain agreement that would allow her to plead no contest to a lesser charge of child abuse, and they have promised not to seek prison time. She could then be sentenced to community control, which could require an ankle monitor, or probation. The judge could withhold adjudication. That would mean she would not have to register as a sex offender, and her record could be expunged later.

If this involved a 18 year old male having had sex with a 14 year old girl, his ass would be doing jail time, not to mention living the rest of his life as a registered sex offender.

This 18 year old lesbian and her parents were lucky to be offered such a deal from the prosecutors.

What happened to equal rights women fought so hard for?

I guess her and her parents are okay with some laws, but not other laws to follow.

Can only wonder if the parents would have done the same thing if it had not been a same sex relationship. They knew about the relationship before but waited until the girl was 18 to go to the cops, I see them losing their daughter as soon as she is old enough to move out of the house,

I read about this, this morning. I think that lick her was a cuntributing factor

It could get very interesting if it goes to trial. If it does the media, based upon the American viewers' tabloid mentality, will be on this like stink on a fart. The fact that it involves a good looking woman will amplify it, guaranteed.

Must be another 'drop-dead' gorgeous blond chick

She is a cutie, no doubt.

I see them losing their daughter as soon as she is old enough to move out of the house

I speculate that they already have and that young thing may not be so innocent and naive Who seduced who, if anyone, may be a valid question

It looks like the younger girls parents have a problem with this relationship, and since they couldn't get Kaitlyn expelled from the school, they are trying another tactic. Wrong? Yes, it is. But, 14 yrs old is not the age of consent in Florida, and with Kaitlyn being 18..she is a legal adult, and yes, whether morally right on the younger girls parents or not, she still broke the law having sex with an underage minor.

The age issue is, to me, actually the most interesting thing about this. As a parent, I wouldn't want my 14 year old to be dating an 18 year old. However, I know that it's not abnormal for an 18 year old to be in school with, and interested in, a 14 or 15 year old.

I think there's a huge difference between someone in their twenties or older having sex with a 14 year old and another teenager dating and having sex with a 14 year old. It's too big an age difference for them to be dating, much les having sex, but I don't think it's reasonable to send an 18 year old high school kid to prison because they had sex with a high school freshman.

The fact is, if parents decide not to start a kid in kindergarten until they are six, which is not uncommon these days, a high school junior could turn 18. If that kid has sex with a sophomore who is 15, should he or she go to prison? I don't think so.

I realize as the 14 YO is a minor, there are laws. But what do we know beyond what was revealed? For all we know, the 14 Y0 could be 14 going on 19, be a lezbo Lolita and sexually active for a long time. In this day and age she could have had more lesbian encounters than the accused and been the aggressor/seducer

StraddleMyNose

May 26 @ 1:00PM

True, we know little about the minor, BUT, the 18 year old STILL had sexual relations with her. That in itself can't be excused!

In all honesty, they are both teenagers, just 18 is considered "legal adult age". And that is the sticking point in the legal sense. My best friend, when she was 15 was dating a 22 yr old, and yes, he is the father of her oldest son. I honestly believe this girl shouldn't be prosecuted. But, I do agree with Straddle:

If this involved a 18 year old male having had sex with a 14 year old girl, his ass would be doing jail time, not to mention living the rest of his life as a registered sex offender.

Plus, the article I linked to, I got the impression the 14 yr old's parents didn't approve of their daughter having a girlfriend. They had tried getting the older girl expelled from the school if I remember correctly. So, seeing they could break up the relationship, they are trying this tactic.

What I see is parents trying to deny what their daughter is, and using any means they can to turn her "straight".